Archie's thoughts on the BBC ban.

[haudthebus 49]

Rangers score own goal with BBC ban

Archie Macpherson

Sports columnist.

Monday 6 May 2013

There are those who have been witness to the exhibitions provided at Ibrox this season who would regard a ban from its precincts as an act of charity comparable to being given a reprieve from solitary confinement.

I did not witness the sight of the BBC's Chick Young, pictured, making his way down Edmiston Drive after being shown the door at Ibrox on Saturday before a ball was kicked, but since I know the man to be a connoisseur of the good things in life I suspect he was not a doleful sight, although professionally angered; I suspect, in fact, he might have indulged in a little hop, skip and jump at having been released from having to endure the final chapter of Rangers' plodding rite of passage to another league.

In essence, his banning was more beneficial to him than it was to the club. And so it is with most bans which have been heaped on broadcasters and journalists. Banning doesn't mute views, it oxygenates them. Banning doesn't lower people from view, it elevates them. I recall the famous ban which the Scottish Football Association imposed on the football writer John Mackenzie in the World Cup in 1974.

He was to be regarded as a carrier of the ebola virus and not permitted on any official flight. It made him a hero and gave his newspaper such mileage that they must have passed his expenses claims without a glance. Other journalists were sick with envy and were queuing up to see what they could write to be banned as well. By that token, I have to shamefully admit that I was never banned by a club. Although in defence of what would appear, by that account, to have been a rather anodyne career, I came through an age when managers and chairmen preferred arm-to-arm combat. Jock Stein would vaporise you with one lash of the tongue. Jim McLean could make you feel you like you were just out of the cot. And Fergie could put you in that twister that sent Dorothy to Oz. It was all up front, and sometimes brutal.

An enraged Ally McCoist in confrontation with Chick would have been a much straighter, more honest grappling of the subject. The only danger of such a meeting of minds would be that it would have overshadowed what purported to be entertainment in the subsequent 90 minutes of football. Ally has come out with dignified statements to counter much of the conjecture surrounding the club and from which he has gained immense credit.

But the cheery chappy image needs to be supplemented by the more severe challenger to any person or organisation than has a go at him; personally, and up front. Being shielded by a ban is no alternative to that, the clinical issuing of which carries the inevitable corollary that it is going to defeat its purpose anyway. Folk might now pay closer attention to the undercurrent of unrest which underpins this bizarre leaked report and study its contents rather than dismissing it readily as simply a gratuitous insult to the Rangers manager as portrayed in other media outlets.

Of course, it is in many ways delusional. It is written in the terms of a kid writing out his list of presents to Santa Claus. It presents a world of tinselly make-believe. But you can equally understand why the author bothered to concoct it.

This has not been an edge-of-seat season in Govan. It was the season of the slouch, whereby out of an admirable sense of duty and obligation fans sat sullenly, far too often, to protect their own heritage, not just the club's. They did so because although wins came regularly they were often stupefied into watching what was proclaimed to be a youthful side playing much of the time at a geriatric pace. It is something of a triumph on their part that despite the utter banalities of what they had to endure, it worked to an extraordinary extent, just as the rest of Scottish football deserted their initial wildly optimistic Sell-Out-Saturday concept after only a few weeks.

But, at the same time, if you were to listen to many disgruntled Rangers supporters you could tell that it wasn't just Charles Green and the Baron Munchausen of this report who were expressing disquiet about the manager and his coaching squad. It was common currency in the stands. Why shouldn't it have been? A loyalty card at Ibrox ought not to offer discounts for silence on any issue. That is why the BBC were perfectly entitled to use the leaked document. It certainly carries with it the need to issue caveats of one kind or another about it as I have identified. However, Saturday's decision by Rangers was muddied by the recent history where the image of Ally as the plunging man was portrayed on the screens.

We should not let bad taste, like that, get in the way of reasonable argument, and certainly not stifle comment. Rangers are still in the melting pot in more ways than one and with it carries the need to be rational. If they are they will realise that no manager, not even the highly likeable Ally McCoist, is immune from criticism. The only ban they should implement is on issuing bans.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

Fair comment Archie but the problem with the BBC runs deeper than the leaked dossier

[jack1690 793]

Shut it Archie and remove your blinkers. bbc schotland are shower of poisonous rats and shouldve been banned long ago.

[peter huistra 1,740]

Fuck off archie ya senile auld cunt , the bbc have been instrumental in harming our football club . For a public owned organisation they have not been shown to be impartial when reporting on Rangers , time and again .

They are fucking reeking .

[4everGers 82]

Shut the door on your way out & keep it shut

[haudthebus 49]

I believe the thrust of Archie's article is that Ally should be big enough to fight his own battles and that he is not and should not be exempt from criticism, cheeky chappy or not.

Personally I would have announced a term ban of say 6 months and stuck to it but that is just me. The BBC should have been dealt with long ago rather than let quiet dignity set our responses.

[loyalfollower 1,543]

Have to agree. They shouldn't be banned over something which has came out from the club.

It should have been done when daly lied last may.

Sadly we will never see another moment when ourmanager puts a reporter Iin ttheir place like walter did all them years ago

[theiconicman 2,975]

Find myself agreeing with him. The board since Green left is weak, rudderless and closing ranks to protect itself. I.e. We've gone back 20 years.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

all the ban has done is legitimised the bbc and will ultimately achieve nothing - there are many ways to combat bad or even unfair vicious press - a ban is not one of them !

[barryboy165 12]

I don't agree with the ban. If I was Ally, I would've still allowed them access, however, like Fergie did when he was at war with the BBC would send one of my underlings. Not Durrant, McDowell or even Jim Stewart.

I would consistently send Jimmy Bell (kitman and team bus driver) to respond to all post match interviews, with the intention of answering any question with the likes of "the kits were well soiled this week, took two washes to get them clean" and "the state of the road works on the A9".

At the pre-game briefings a simple "no comment" from Ally would suffice.

[Albertz 78 918]

Disagee with the auld yin 100%.

If this ban achieves anything then it might just be that certain parts of the mHedia might just think twice now before trying to do a hatchet on the club.

For years we've let the rags, snyde and the bbc get away with slandering our club and it's fans without doing anything about it. Now that at least some action has been taken others might just think what would happen to sales and ratings if they can't cover Rangers games anymore?

The mHedia will stop it's agenda when we hit them where it hurts most, the pocket.

[theiconicman 2,975]

Disagee with the auld yin 100%.

If this ban achives anything then it might just be that certain parts of the mHedia might just think twice now before trying to do a hatchet on the club.

For years we've let the rags, snyde and the bbc get away with slandering our club and it's fans without doing anything about it. Now that at least some action has been taken others might just think what would happen to sales and ratings if they can't cover Rangers games anymore?

The mHedia will stop it's agenda when we hit them where it hurts most, the pocket.

nonsense. Plenty of bears will continue to buy/ consume the negative headlines. Also lets nit forget the unwashed horde that lap it up.

[Marco Negri's Beard 1,423]

Old drunk

[Albertz 78 918]

nonsense. Plenty of bears will continue to buy/ consume the negative headlines. Also lets nit forget the unwashed horde that lap it up.

If we ban a newspaper any newspaper from Ibrox and they were unable to cover an Old firm/European game they would think twice about slandering the club.

The mhedia is a cutthroat business, if the rebels competitor the Sun had all the pics and action from a European game or old firm game and the rebel had no pics or stories who would sell most papers the next day?

Septic have been blackmailing the mhedia for years with bans from Porkhead, they know losing access to their home games will cost sections of the media money in sales and advertising , about time we did the same.

[binsy08 362]

I don't agree with the ban. If I was Ally, I would've still allowed them access, however, like Fergie did when he was at war with the BBC would send one of my underlings. Not Durrant, McDowell or even Jim Stewart.

I would consistently send Jimmy Bell (kitman and team bus driver) to respond to all post match interviews, with the intention of answering any question with the likes of "the kits were well soiled this week, took two washes to get them clean" and "the state of the road works on the A9".

At the pre-game briefings a simple "no comment" from Ally would suffice.

I would bring back the Copland road nutter to do the interviews, can you imagine wee Chick trying to interview him. A joy to behold.

[theiconicman 2,975]

If we ban a newspaper any newspaper from Ibrox and they were unable to cover an Old firm/European game they would think twice about slandering the club.

The mhedia is a cutthroat business, if the rebels competitor the Sun had all the pics and action from a European game or old firm game and the rebel had no pics or stories who would sell most papers the next day?

Septic have been blackmailing the mhedia for years with bans from Porkhead, they know losing access to their home games will cost sections of the media money in sales andadvertising , about time we did the same.

Naive. Celtic fans have more unity than us. It's the victim mentality. Banning a broadcaster or paper will only encourage them to continue to write negative stories.

We shouldn't be making enemies of the media, propaganda is good tool.

[Zappa6995 3,643]

Do we or do we not have a PR department.

If someone writes or broadcasts an article which is false is it not their responsibility or job to counter the claims made if the club feel they are false.

Banning media outlets or organisations is not the answer.

[Albertz 78 918]

Naive. Celtic fans have more unity than us. It's the victim mentality. Banning a broadcaster or paper will only encourage them to continue to write negative stories.

We shouldn't be making enemies of the media, propaganda is good tool.

The problem is the media in Scotland is full of Rangers hating enemies, kissing their backside won't do anything at all. We've sat back and done nothing about the attacks on our club for years now and it's only gotten worse not better.

Appeasment is not and never will be the answer, the answer is hitting them where it hurts most. Banning the haters from Ibrox which will mean they can't cover our games and can't sell advertsing due to falling sales etc.

Don't know about others but the only time i buy a paper is to read about Rangers, if they had no info/stories on Rangers i would not buy any rag sure that goes for a lot of guys in the west of Scotland.

[Albertz 78 918]

Do we or do we not have a PR department.

If someone writes or broadcasts an article which is false is it not their responsibility or job to counter the claims made if the club feel they are false.

Banning media outlets or organisations is not the answer.

Doubt the bbc were banned for this one thing, more likely the drip,drip effect over the last 5 years.

Not sure how the club can justify letting an organisation into Ibrox who thought it was okay to have a mock-up of our gaffer committing suicide.

[jimmy millar 107]

Is this the same Erchie who wrote an article a couple of months ago that the BBC were full of bluenoses when he was a cub reporter,donkeys ago,but had now turned full circle and were now instituitionally anti Rangers.Anyway,anyone who earns their corn in journalism will never agree with banning orders,but I reluctantly agree with it. This latest "exclusive" is yet another attempt to discredit our club,in a very long list of attacks.A line had to be drawn in the sand.I do agree with Erch that it is a merciful release for BBC reporters,as only dyed in the wool Rangers fans would pay to watch the turgid fare masquerading as football we have had to endure this season.However,when new players start arriving and STV get the exclusives,surely someone at the beeb in London will start asking questions.

[Beaujolais 1,371]

I have to say I struggle with the concept of banning the BBC for reporting on this leaked dossier. I would have preferred that if Rangers really felt the need to ban the BBC it should have been on the grounds that we are committed to being a family and child friendly club and as such have no truck with any organisation that blatantly closes ranks and covers up child protection abuses by its own people.

In terms of the dossier banning the BBC is akin to shooting the messenger, and is in fact almost diversionary, rather than tackling the issues raised. These are:

1.) There is clearly a serious problem within Ibrox with regards how we communicate and what we communicate to the media. If there is someone leaking confidential material then that needs to be investigated and dealt with.

2.) Although a large chunk of the dossier belongs more in the world of fantasy football, there is element in it which does reflect the concerns of many fans that we still appear more intent on buying expensive short term solutions rather creating an environment in which we can successfully grow our own talent of the future. I feel the Club would do itself a great service if it was to produce a mission statement regarding its commitment to Youth Development and a summary of the strategic approach it plans to take. This would head off a lot of trouble before it hits the pass, thereby killing any such silly stories stone dead.

This was already yesterday's news until we banned the BBC.

[Non_Sucumbi 876]

I have to say I struggle with the concept of banning the BBC for reporting on this leaked dossier. I would have preferred that if Rangers really felt the need to ban the BBC it should have been on the grounds that we are committed to being a family and child friendly club and as such have no truck with any organisation that blatantly closes ranks and covers up child protection abuses by its own people.

Do not disagree with those sentiments. That would mean we would never host another game versus the 'followers of Torbett' at Ibrox. Perhaps not a bad idea

[legalbeagle 3,734]

All for banning them as they are a hateful bunch who twist everything and anything they can, so I am glad to see them out. This particular reason just seems odd, are we going to ban everyone that takes a story leaked out of Ibrox? Or is there more to it with this?

[1st_Jan_1994 4,868]

Got no problem with the BBC ban - should have happened a decade ago

But I'm uneasy with the people in charge spitting the dummy out at this document - which is the best thing I've read in ages - self preservation anyone?

[norgerpd 280]

Fuck off archie ya senile auld cunt , the bbc have been instrumental in harming our football club . For a public owned organisation they have not been shown to be impartial when reporting on Rangers , time and again .

They are fucking reeking .

Hope to fuck I'm as lucid as he is when senility kicks in!

Sure,we have a problem with the media as a whole but,if you think this is the way to fight them,you are completely deluded.

I will ask again,without any answer forthcoming I would suspect,what the fuck is Traynor's job at our club.To confront this type of thing is surely the only reason we employed this bloated,pompous balloon?

Big Archie speaks nothing but total common sense!